1. At the 97th session of its Maritime Safety Committee in London on November 21-25, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) issued a circular, in which it expressed grave concerns over North Korea's repeated missile launches without forewarnings in 2016 and urged the North to comply with relevant IMO conventions and resolutions.

° [Gist of the circular] The IMO expressed its grave concern over the fact that North Korea’s missile launches without any proper navigational warnings pose a serious threat to maritime safety; confirmed the significance and continued validity of relevant documents issued by the IMO; recognized that unnotified firings of missiles are clearly contrary to relevant IMO documents; and urged all its members to avoid taking any action that could endanger the safety of navigation and to comply with relevant IMO conventions and resolutions.

2. The circular issued by the IMO Maritime Safety Committee, which oversees international maritime safety, carries significance in that the international community has expressed to North Korea its stern, unified position that the North’s missile launches without forewarnings pose a serious threat in terms of international maritime safety and that the international community will not accept such actions.

° The IMO circular marked the third of its kind regarding North Korea’s unnotified missile launches following the ones issued in 1998 and 2006. It holds particular significance in that it marked the first such circular where North Korea is specified by its name, making clear that North Korea endangers navigational safety.

3. Ahead of the Maritime Safety Committee meeting, North Korea submitted a document to express its opposition to the adoption of the circular. However, while the Republic of Korea and 20-odd other countries voiced concern over North Korea’s missile launches without navigational warnings and delivered pro-circular remarks, no country was supportive of North Korea, which shows the international community’s unified position on this issue.

4. In September, the ROK submitted a proposal to the IMO Secretariat that a circular be issued and led the efforts to that end along with such co-sponsors as the US, Japan, France and the Marshall Islands.

5. The ROK government urges the North Korean government to pay attention to the grave concern the international community has expressed in the circular over its missile launches without forewarnings and to strictly abide by the relevant regulations under IMO conventions and resolutions on international maritime safety.


* unofficial translation